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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnfield Water prot comm minutes Mar 9 2026Enfield Water Protection Committee Minutes March 9, 2026 Attending: Nancy Spero, Dan Walker, Stephanie Redmond, Nancy Lorr, Mary Lynn Cummings, Peter Penniman, Rebecca Schneider- Guest Speaker These minutes will be sent to the Water Protection Committee mailing list which contains current and past members of the committee who said they would like to be kept up to date about the business of the committee. If you would like to be removed from this list, please let me know. They are also sent to Town Board members and the Planning Board, and kept on file on the Town of Enfield web site. Minutes respectfully submitted by Nancy Spero Next meeting: Thursday April 16, 7:00 pm. In person at the Town Court House. If you are unable to attend, but would like to attend in a hybrid- computer method, Stephanie will send a zoom link. Action items for the committee are underlined below. Please note that this is a different day and time we are meeting. Rebecca Schneider- Guest Speaker, Cornell University Professor from the Department of Natural Resources gave an excellent presentation on Roadside Ditches and how to reduce flooding and water pollution by making changes in how we create and maintain ditches. She talked about watersheds, ditches including findings from studies and management, and how to begin to work with stake holders to make changes that can have a big impact on flooding and pollution. Rebecca provided two handouts about Roadside ditches and some copies of these will be available at the Court House during the Town Board meeting. Stephanie will talk to Angel Hinickle who is working on mapping all the ditches in Tompkins County so that we can get a map of our area ditches. We can also talk to Buddy about how he manages ditches, and if they are hydro seeding the ditches after work is done to reduce run off and flooding. We will talk more about this as a committee at our next meeting. Stephanie may also be able to follow up on possible grants in conjunction with other towns, that may help with this project. DWSP2: We still await the final approval of our plan from NYS. Becky Sims reports that she has spoken with other towns and none of them have heard from NYS or received approval. The approved plan may be able to assist us in getting grants in the future, in addition to being a working document for our town. We are continuing our work as a committee using the ideas in our plan while we await official approval. The Drinking Water Source Protection Plan was approved by the Town Board at the November meeting in 2023. Pamphlet and Website: A digital copy of the pamphlet is now on our committee page on the Enfield Website. Tom Joyce was not able to attend this meeting so we do not have an update from him tonight. We will continue to think of places to put the pamphlet;. Ideas included: back packs at Enfield School (with approval from the ICSD), The Enfield fire station to be available during blood drives and other events, and putting a link to the digital pamphlet in the town newsletter. We are running low on copies. Stephanie and Tom will work with Town Clerk Mary Cornell to get approval to make more copies from the Town Board, and get these printed. Tom will add credit to the photographer, and also find out what the ICSD needs put on the pamphlet in order to send the pamphlet home with students with School District approval. Website: The presentation we had tonight will be downloaded onto our website for anyone to view. Stephanie will talk to Mary Cornell about putting it on the site. Our minutes are currently on the website, and these are not easily accessed without permission. Stephanie will talk to Mary Cornell to have them more easily viewed. Also, we need to update the list of current committee members on the web site. Town Board and Planning Board: The Town Board and Planning Board are still in the process of updating and finalizing the Site Plan regulations. These have been given to the Town board and they are reviewing them. The Planning Board is also working its way through the Comprehensive Plan to update it based on what has already been accomplished and looking at future goals. Stephanie would like members of this committee to look at laws which have been passed in other towns, and see if there are any that could be used in Enfield to make the water protections stronger. We will continue to work on this at our next meeting. Agriculture/ CAFO meetings: No updates tonight. Water Testing: Peter, Tom and Nancy Lorr did a water test on October 30. They will work on doing two tests during this quarter. We did not do a new test this last quarter due to the snow cover and low water flow. Mapping and Survey project: This project is now completed. Thank you to Becky Sims and RCap Solutions for spearheading this project. The survey gave the town more information as to what the public’s concerns are about their water. It is not financially feasible for the town to pursue public water systems at this time. The Town will continue to think about what other resources are available to support residents who are having problems with their well water quality and/or quantity. The survey pointed out that this is clearly an important concern for many town residents. We will be continuing with Water testing quarterly at our two sites. We will be continuing to assess what supports exist for residents and the Town as a whole that might help protect our water further. Stephanie gave the committee information from The NYS Association of Conservation Commissions - NYSACC. These are ordinances that have been done by other towns. This may give us ideas for future projects. The index from the Ordinance Library of NYSACC has been forwarded to this committee and the link is here: https://nysacc.org/index.php/ordinance-library/ https://townofenfield.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2022-_-Draft-Drinking-Water- Protection-Law_Addendum-to-Site-Plan-Review-Law_v2.docx-1.pdf Next meeting: Thursday April 16 at 7:00pm. In person at the Town Court House. If you are unable to attend, but would like to attend in a hybrid- computer method, Stephanie will send a zoom link.